(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
The San Francisco 49ers are one of the frontrunners to win this coming season’s Super Bowl championship, and the biggest reason why is their defense.
They were the best defensive team in the NFL last season, as they led everyone in points and total yards allowed, and it is unlikely they will see any real drop-off this fall.
San Francisco has studs up and down their roster on the defensive side of the football, and one of them is middle linebacker Fred Warner.
According to Jeremy Fowler, via Dov Kleiman, NFL executives, players, scouts, and coaches voted Warner the best off-ball linebacker in the game right now.
Executives, Players, Scouts and Coaches ranked the best off-ball linebackers in the NFL, via @JFowlerESPN:
1) #49ers Fred warner
2) #Ravens Roquan Smith
3) #Bears Tremaine Edmunds
4) #Bills Matt Milano
5) #Bucs Devin White
6) #Saints Demario Davis
7) #Colts Shaquille Leonard… pic.twitter.com/1FeemcsHI9
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) July 8, 2023
Fellow 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who seems to be a rising star in his own right, was voted the 10th-best off-ball linebacker, which is a measure of how savage the team’s defense is at the moment.
Warner was a third-round draft pick in 2018 at a time when the team was starting to emerge from the short rebuilding process that began after the 2014 campaign when Patrick Willis, himself a standout linebacker, called it quits.
In 2019, he started to tap into his potential by recording 118 combined tackles (89 solo), nine passes defended, and one pick-six, and the following year, he made both the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro First-Team for the first time.
This past season, the San Diego County native finished with 130 combined tackles (79 solo) while adding 10 passes defended and getting named to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro First-Team once again.
He will be joined on the front seven this fall by defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, who played for the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles the last three years.
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